Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Keir

The Flower of Keir

By Francis Bennoch (1812–1890)

O, WHAT care I where Love was born!

I know where oft he lingers,

Till night’s black curtain ’s drawn aside

By morning’s rosy fingers.

If you would know, come, follow me,

O’er mountain, moss, and river,

To where the Nith and Scar agree

To flow as one forever.

Pass Kirk-o’-Keir and Clover lea,

Through loanings red with roses;

But pause beside the spreading tree

That Fanny’s bower encloses.

There, knitting in her shady grove,

Sits Fanny singing gayly;

Unwitting of the chains of love

She ’s forging for us daily.

Like light that brings the blossom forth,

And sets the corn a-growing,

Melts icy mountains in the north,

And sets the streams a-flowing;

So Fanny’s eyes, so bright and wise,

Shed loving rays to cheer us,

Her absence gives us wintry skies,

’T is summer when she ’s near us!

O, saw ye ever such a face

To waken love and wonder;

A brow with such an arch of grace,

And blue eyes shining under!

Her snaring smiles, sweet nature’s wiles,

Are equalled not by many;

Her look it charms, her love it warms,

The flower of Keir is Fanny.